Custom Product Collection Filter

Question

I created a custom form that search for specific product attribute my form look like this

$location = $this->getRequest()->getParam('location');
$specialization = $this->getRequest()->getParam('specialization');
$name = $this->getRequest()->getParam('name');
$attrSetName = "Group Deal";
$attributeSetId = Mage::getModel('eav/entity_attribute_set')
    ->load($attrSetName, 'attribute_set_name')
    ->getAttributeSetId();
$_productCollection=$this->getLoadedProductCollection();
$_productCollection->clear()
    ->addFieldToFilter('attribute_set_id', $attributeSetId)
    ->addAttributeToFilter('type_id', array('eq' => 'virtual'));
    //Default Count//
    $count = $_productCollection->getSize();

<?php  if(!empty($location)): ?>
    <?php $_productCollection->clear()->addAttributeToFilter('contact_city', array('like' =>$location.'%' )); ?>
<?php endif;?>
<?php  if($specialization>0): ?>
    <?php $_productCollection->clear()->addAttributeToFilter('doctor_specialization',$specialization);?>
<?php endif;?>
<?php  if(!empty($name)): ?>
    <?php $_productCollection->clear()->addAttributeToFilter('name', array('like' =>'%'.$name.'%' )); ?>
<?php endif;?>

The above line of code is how i return my results. How ever when i search with 2 search parameters like name and location im not getting accurate results, Is there any way to improve the search query? Any help would be appreciated very much.

Answer 1

By default addAttributeToFilter add AND condition. You need OR condition on collection use like below

$collection->addAttributeToFilter(
    array(
        array('attribute'=> 'someattribute','like' => 'value'),
        array('attribute'=> 'otherattribute','like' => 'value'),
        array('attribute'=> 'anotherattribute','like' => 'value'),
    )
);

see also in Magento Wiki